I stared at the holographic screen before my eyes for a few seconds before activating Mage's Fortitude, discarding my emotions and heightening my senses and foresight.
I picked up my hand and pressed the [Yes] button on the screen.
Immediately, I heard the ground split apart. I jolted around to see a gigantic hole had appeared on the sandy beach that I was standing on.
Without hesitation, I lowered my weight with a gravity spell and jumped into the hole, bracing myself to fall on a hard surface.
After about a minute of slowly falling, I made contact with some kind of floor.
*DHAP*
I landed perfectly fine.
The place I was in was completely dark and nothing could be seen. But that changed soon when the torches on the sides of the room lit up brightly.
The torches were blue and uncannily bright for their size, although it didn't faze me much.
The room itself looked just like an ordinary, modern living room. A sofa, a fireplace, and a gadget that resembles a wall-hanging TV, which was opposite the sofa.
The only thing that was not ordinary about this place was the amount of dust in it. Everything had been covered by a thick veil of dust and was hidden away from their observers.
I went up to the TV, dusted it off with an energy magic spell and waited for about 5 minutes.
Suddenly, the TV's screen lit up brightly and a person showed up on it. An old, Santa-Claus-looking man with a white beard and long white hair.
"GOOD DAY !&#@$ DEAR VISITOR **@#!", the old man spoke up from the TV. His voice sounded distorted and glitchy, thanks to the TV's old speakers.
"MY NAME IS *%*#@ =, And this is the [TRIAL OF !(#*$*@]!"
"COMPLETE MY @($&@& AND WIN THE @@#&$! AS A @#$%*!"
"GOOD @*@(#"
The display was also failing in many frames. Pausing at awkward times and sometimes just totally glitching out.
Combined with the glitchy sound and the creepy-looking old man, this place gave off a very haunted vibe. Although, because I had Mage's Fortitude activated, I felt nothing,
'That door should be the entrance to the boss arena...', I thought before walking towards a wooden door that had many years' worth of filth on it.
I pushed it open using a weak force smash spell, which created a very loud, creepy and bone-chillingly haunting sound.
I was greeted with a room as big as a cinema hall. The same blue torches lit up, which lit up the massive room.
But this room wasn't empty though. It had two enormous statues in the middle of it-
One kneeling down with a sword in hand, and the other standing behind it, with the shield in hand.
They looked metallic and had several lines and circuit patterns going all over their colossal bodies.
Suddenly, I felt a shockwave through the floor.
*WHHHOOOOOOSSSSHHHHIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE*
I heard electric motors being powered up.
The lines and circuits on the statues started glowing blue.
Although, this didn't last very long as sparks of electricity started leaking out of both the golems.
*SHRK* *SRRRHHHHAAAKKKK* *EEEEEIIIIIIOOOOOOHHHHHWWWWPPP*
The golem holding the sword deactivated completely. The shield golem was also not unaffected.
Its left leg looked like it was in very bad shape and its right arm was also looking like they were in poor condition.
'Ancient Golems...', I thought.
Those golems were at least a few centuries years old. They aren't originally from Earth, but Xavier Harris, the Archmage, had found them in a dungeon and brought them here to guard his work, the Ring of Requiem.
With a thundering stomp on the ground, the shield golem got in stance to fight.
I, too didn't waste the opportunity. I casted 'Dark Mass' onto my staff and prepared to cast Gravity Bullet towards the golem's left leg, which was one of its weak points.
With Dark Mass, the Meteor Ring, and my spell's charging time, the first spell would do the most amount of damage in the fight. So it's crucial to absolutely not miss this shot.
I ran as fast as I could to its left side and prepared to cast my spell.
Although, of course, it would never be that easy.
The shield golem noticed my movements and decided to counter me by turning its colossal shield towards my direction, blocking its weak spot.
But, I had predicted that that would happen, so I had cancelled by Gravity Bullet spell long ago and was actually charging up the Dark Press spell.
As it proceeded to smash its shield into the ground to cover its left leg, I casted the Dark press spell.
*BOOOMM!* *CREEAAAKK*
I heard the shield smash into the ground with tremendous force and my vision was blocked by dust. I also heard the sound of metal creaking.
'Now, its vulnerabilities are out in the open.', I concluded before casting 'Particulate Goggles', an energy magic spell that allows me to see through dust, to a certain degree.
I wasted no time and sprinted toward's the golem's left side again.
This time, the golem was helpless and couldn't counter it. I casted a Gravity Bullet towards its left leg and the dark purple projectiles did a fine job at imploding and doing some heavy damage to it.
*SHAAARKKK* *BOOM*
The golem released its hands from the shield and fell to one knee.
'Now comes the hard part...', I thought before putting up an 'AntiConducting Array', another energy magic spell that created a magic barrier around me that could defend against electric attacks quite well.
I casted 'PainKill', another energy magic spell that numbs the caster's body and spares them some of the physical pain caused to them.
The golem started charging up its attack.
*HUUM HUUM HUUM HUUUM HUUUUUM HUUUUUUUUM*
And finally, it released the massive amount of energy it charged up-
*SHHHHRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAKKKKK*
A wave of electricity washed over the entire room like a tidal wave.
"UUURRRRGGHHHH", I yelled out in pain. Even after putting up the barrier and cancelling about half of the pain, it still felt like getting put in an oven for 3 seconds and then immediately put in liquid nitrogen for 2 seconds.
The pain was mind-numbing.
Although thanks to Mage's Fortitude, I didn't lose consciousness.
'All of the next attacks are gonna feel like this if I fail to avoid them...', I thought before gritting my teeth tight and preparing for some serious running.
'This is why you should never skip leg day...'
The Golem aimed at me with its arms and started preparing another attack.
This time, it wasn't an arena-wide AOE attack, so it was dodgeable.
*WHIIIIEEE* *SHHHHRRRRRAAAKKK*
A wave of pure electrical pain was launched at me. Fortunately, I was able to avoid them.
And as it was recovering from attacking, I casted Gravity bullets, aiming them at its right arm.
*SHHHOOONNNKK* *SHHHOOOONNNK* *SHHHHHOOOOONNNNKK*
The spells did not disappoint. They chipped away at its left arm, bit by bit. Bending metal and distorting circuit lines.
This horrifying game of dodge and attack went on for one long, excruciating hour.
I was starting to get very tired of constantly running around and casting magic non-stop.
Even with Amaranth, the amount of mana I was consuming was simply too much. And, there weren't any trash mobs I could kill and steal mana from.
I was slowly running out of juice, which was a very bad situation.
Finally, after struggling for hours, I shattered its right arm.
But this wasn't over yet. I was almost out of mana and absolutely could not afford to keep up the defensive spells. Now, if I get hit by anything, I would feel unholy amounts of pain, that will most likely make me faint.
Also, gravity magic's role in this fight was now over. The armour on the rest of the golem's body was simply too strong to be affected by my weak spells.
I had to attack the shattered right arm that had exposed an array of electrical circuits and wires with an energy magic spell 'Conducting Arrow'. The spell's name explains itself perfectly.
Now, not only did I not have any defence, but aiming the attacks will also take a lot of effort and the chance of missing the target is much greater.
The Golem continued to attack me with waves of electricity, and I tried my best to avoid them all with my tired and aching body.
I also took way longer to fire more spells as I couldn't afford to miss the spells because of my limited mana.
Finally, after getting a long enough window, I fired the first spell.
*SHHRRRRRKKKKK*
It hit the target and did the damage as expected. Although, it showed me that this fight was still long before over.
After another excruciating 3 minutes, I managed to fire the second arrow.
It too was effective and damaged the golem more.
'Just 5 more arrows to go...', I sighed tremblingly while thinking in my head.
For the next hour, it felt like I had been teleported to hell itself.
My body was completely tired and ached like hell. My mana, almost drained, made me feel like having a hangover. It wouldn't be long till I had to deactivate Mage's Fortitude as well, which would give me a crippling migraine.
The Millennium Centipede was dethroned by the Ancient Golem in terms of difficulty. And that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
*SHHHHRHRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKK* *BRRRRRRHHHHH* *BOOOOOOMMMMMM*
Finally, I managed to hit the last arrow perfectly and destroy the golem.
Its colossal body fell to the ground lifelessly and all of the circuits and patterns that had lit up on its gigantic body started fading out.
After it fell, my mana also got completely depleted and I had to deactivate Mage's Fortitude, which made me immediately collapse to the ground.
The pain was unimaginable.
'This is gonna last for 5 whole minutes?!', I cried out internally as I writhed around the floor in pain.
'What have I ever done to deserve this torture?!'
Complaining didn't help, as in most cases, and the pain continued.
After the whole 5 minutes of torture, which felt like weeks, I laid down flat on the floor.
I looked to my side and saw Amaranth lying on the floor, its crystal still glowing faintly.
"Keuk... Sniff... Damnit... I... What have I ever done to deserve this...?", I started crying.
I felt absolutely miserable. I had no idea why I was even in this god-forsaken place. I didn't ask for any of this. So why? Why do I have to suffer so much?
I know that getting the artifact was my decision, but I knew that if I didn't have it, my chances of survival would have been much lower in the future. I had no choice but to take it.
It's kind of like studying the hard part of the syllabus first, before studying the rest, so that the rest feels easier than they actually are.
The syllabus here being, this novel's timeline and the 'hard part' being, getting the Ring of Requiem.
I don't know for how long I cried like that, but soon I realised that crying would help no one.
'Stop complaining and move forward, you twat!', I yelled internally before getting up and picking up Amaranth.
'Let's get what I came here for...'